As GOP crank-yanker Roger Stone recently learned, most Broadway theaters are dark on Monday, so day three of the stagehands’ strike will have the least impact on the city’s economy. The Times has a funny photo in today’s article about stymied Broadway theatergoers; it depicts disappointed Spamalot ticket-holder Cecelia Pan taking her family to a slightly different show: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Because, you know, with Broadway shuttered there’s simply no other family theater worth seeing in New York City.
Turn to Playbill for all your ticket refund questions. (Short answer: tickets bought with your credit card will be automatically refunded minus the “processing fee”; tickets bought at the box office can be brought there for refunds.) The Times also did some informative number-crunching yesterday: Broadway is a $939 million industry, more than 12 million tickets were sold last year, the 2003 Broadway musicians strike cost the city about $7 million a day, the producers have amassed a $20 million emergency fund, the union’s got $4.1 million in reserve, currently stagehands earn between $1,225 and $1,600 per week – and that’s not counting all the O.T.
A Playgoer commenter points us to a blogging stagehand; so far the site is high on fiery rhetoric, but it might be worth checking back for any first-hand reportage. Concerned ticket-holders should keep refreshing Michael Riedel’s page at the Post website – he’s got the inside sources who first confirmed the strike.
The two sides have held dueling press conferences since the strike started Saturday. The League of American Theatres and Producers used their air time to decry the union’s contractual “featherbedding”, which requires producers to hire more workers than necessary. Local One president James Claffey was joined at his Sunday press conference by members of Actors Equity and officials from the musicians’ union. Claffey took major umbrage at the term “featherbedding”: “As they continue to say featherbedding and they keep [saying] basically that we're thieves, we're not going back to the table with that lack of respect.” And Claffey has announced a one-day suspension of the strike at the Marriot Marquis Theater, where stagehands will work free of charge at a fundraiser for mentally challenged children.
Photo from Punk Elmo's Flickr.
